Beck, John C and Mitchell Wade. [http://www.gotgamebook.com/ Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever]. Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

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Beck, John C and Mitchell Wade. [http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml;jsessionid=ORRPYYCMQBLPGAKRGWDSELQBKE0YIISW?id=9497&referral=2340 Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever]. Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Author outlines "why DGBL is effective and engaging, how we can leverage those principles to implement DGBL, how faculty can integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) DGBL in the classroom, what DGBL means for institutional IT support, and the lessons we can learn from past attempts at technological innovations in learning."

Core Collection

Tips N Tricks

DDR Settings: How do you avoid having to reset the game.. going through the steps of selecting "game mode", 2 players, and choosing characters. Eli says: You're looking for event mode. Go into options, then game options, and turn event mode on. That ought to do it. We also usually set game over to 'end of music' to keep really bad players from the shame of failing in the middle of the song.

If possible, using a projector screen for console play really gives that 'wow' feeling that most players don't get at home, and is useful for multi-player FPS matches that can look really small on TVs.

If using a projector for fighting games such as Smash Bros. Melee or Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, make sure to test your projector for lag. Certain projectors may leave a bit of a trail when characters start to move fast, which can really hurt frame watchers and other highly skilled gamers. If possible, split the video feed between both the projector and a TV, so that the gamers participating can use the TV, and spectators can view the match on the projection screen.

Digital Projector Compatibility

Relating Gaming to Literacy

How are we defining the term 'literacy'? (Resources: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee (Palgrave MacMillan 2003), Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century by David Franklin Warlick (Linworth 2004), Scholastic article here). When we start to change how we think about the term in a broader sense than just the ability to read/write, it makes sense that the decoding of symbols and images which are a necessary skill in video games, is an important one to have. What a great way to learn this by playing a game. Decoding images and recognizing their references, goes a long way toward understanding critical thinking about this visual world around us.

-information seeking habits and research skills (Resource: Meet the Gamers by Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler, Library Journal, 2005). Everything from Guitar Hero which includes snippets of rock and roll culture in between downloading songs to RuneScape which involves designing strategies to complete tasks and relying on others to help are all literacy skills that are important to libraries.

-Community around games. Many games involve people contributing to forums/discussion boards to share strategies, questions, ideas, and creating fanfiction which can revolve around various characters and scenes from video games.

-The transferring of abilities and inquiry-based learning. If we learn how to decode visual symbols better as a result of playing Mario Kart then we might be able to decode the meaning of modern art in a museum or the ad campaign that arrives on our desk that we need to have a meeting about at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

-If you are focusing on particular equipment to purchase, analyze how symbolic deconstruction is taking place within the game, the wider community beyond the game itself, spend some time with the players and pay attention to how information seeking behavior is displayed.